In a time when industry analysts see nothing but gloom for journalism, Morrissey focuses on a ray of light.

"Unprecedented changes in our marketplace - in the world - have forced us to change or die. I think it makes it easier for me than it has been (for publishers) in the past. We have to change or become irrelevant," he said.

"There's no opportunity to hedge it or to do a little bit. We are going to have to completely change how we do this."

Morrissey came to the Banner-Herald from the Log Cabin Democrat in Conway, Ark., where he was general manager, and then publisher since 2001. He also was publisher of The Glenwood Post in Glenwood Springs, Colo., and general manager of the Western Slope Publishing Group, a group of newspapers that included the Glenwood Post.

Newspaper organizations will change, Morrissey says, but he's not predicting the death of daily journalism.

"The newspaper as an important component of the social fabric of communities will not go away," said Morrissey, who delivered newspapers as a kid, then started his career 20 years ago as a photo editor and quality control manager at The Examiner in Independence, Mo.

But newspapers as they have been for decades will change - and should, he said. "For years, we've been like doctors in the way we present news: 'Take it. It's important, you should take it, so just take it,' " Morrissey said. "People have choices now that they didn't have before. And we are still saying in essence, 'Take it.' "

Newspaper people are only just starting to produce the interactive features that they've promised for years, Morrissey said.

But a bad economy has poked the industry - and lots of other businesses - with a stick and forced them to innovate. Athens is starting from a good point, Morrissey said.

"We have 28,000 people who pay to receive the newspaper and we have 28,000 people - unique people - who come to the Web site (OnlineAthens.com) every day. That's a very large 50-50 pool."

While some newspaper executives complain that free access to news content online is killing paid circulation, turning a profit from an online product is just "logistics of business," Morrissey said.

Rethinking content and access should be the focus - not trying to find a way to make people pay for traditional journalism online, he said. Newspapers don't take advantage of the ability they have to provide more information and resources on Web sites beyond what will fit in print, Morrissey said.

"The power of storytelling will not go away, but if it's all that we do - or even 90 percent or 80 percent - of what we do, we are going to slide down the hill," he said.

And then, there's the aspect of journalism that's most new. Some call it "reader-submitted content," but Morrissey calls the concept "connectivity."

"We are no longer mass marketers. We are niche warriors," he said. "We are putting out magazines for women's issues only. We are putting out magazines for music. We are putting out products for Georgia football only. Those are unique segments of our market.

"But if you tried to reach every segment of the population, you wouldn't have enough hands to type, you wouldn't have enough brains to think of what those people really need."

So, newspapers also must become connectors - matching people who want information with people who have it - rather than arbitrating what readers will or will not know.

Morrissey imagines a time when readers will look up whatever they want to know at OnlineAthens.com ... anything. The Web site could become a type of Athens-area Google search.

But that innovation is part of a healthy publication, not a singular focus that will eclipse the print newspaper.

"Print is not going to go away. Not in my lifetime," Morrissey said. "Ten years from now, the print edition of the Banner-Herald will still come to you, but we will have far more opportunities to bring people the utility of information ... not just 'newspaper' information."

And what of the people who point to newspapers' woes - declining ad revenue and circulation, layoffs, even bankruptcy - as proof that the industry will die? Morrissey doesn't say they are wrong. Just wrong-headed.

"I can say this, as long as we as newspaper people are thinking about failure, we are going to fail. But (failure won't come) if we back up and think like entrepreneurs ... if we think about what we can do, not what we can't do, and we change."